Tuesday Night – July 18, 1944
Dear Folks,
It’s all but time for lights out but I’ll write as long as they’ll let me. I don’t know hardly how the time has slipped by tonight because I haven’t got anything done but odd jobs. I got a pair of pants from the cleaners, turned some stuff in for salvage, cleaned my rifle and just things like that and the time is gone.
Do you know how your tongue feels when you eat an Indian turnip? Well that is just how my body feels only not quite so intense of course. I have broken out with heat rash almost all over. I guess it must be what you call prickly heat because it sure prickles. I got it yesterday when I was on K.P. That is about all I can say about my day on KP because there was nothing outstanding about it. We worked hard but got off before too late in the night. Oh yes, we did get up at 3:45 to go on because the company was going out on the range to fire a combat problem and they had to eat early. So we did put in pretty long hours at that.
This morning we went on our usual hike out to our training area and spent the day digging fox holes and studying tactics. The lights are going out now so I’ll have to close. Won’t promise when I’ll get this finished.
Wed Noon
I don’t know how much time I have but maybe I can get a letter more written. We went out to run problems this morning and I put this into my pocket but I didn…
(Well that’s how much time I had. Now I’ll try again. 8:00PM)
As I was saying when we were called out we were going out to the range to run a problem with live ammunition. The truck came for us just as I was in the middle of a word – and I’m not even going to try to remember what I was thinking. Our squad didn’t get to run the problem because only one squad can run it at a time and they didn’t have time for everyone. But of course we were working even though we weren’t going through the problem. So therefore we are going out again tomorrow and try it again.
Tonight just as we were climbing on the trucks it began to rain. And boy was I glad the truck had canvass over it. It really was quite a rain – it almost seemed that the rain was being poured out of buckets.
I got your week-end letter today. I was getting pretty anxious to hear from you so I was very glad to get a letter. I hated to hear that Daddy’s back has started giving trouble and I sure hope that it can get straightened up soon.
I am pretty disgusted with my watch. I may decide to get it wrapped up tonight and get it sent off tomorrow if I get a chance. I feel like Leo had better fix it – he charged us enough to do a good job. Today it ran from 7AM to 6PM but that’s not working right sometimes it will only run 4 or 5 hours. This watch has enough disadvantages that if I could get the right price for it I would consider selling it and buying another one. The next time there would be certain conditions that would have to be met and I wouldn’t be in such a crazy hurry as I was last time. I wouldn’t want anything that didn’t suit exactly or almost so.
It might not even be possible to get enough from it to make me consider it but here are a few points on how I feel about the watch. I would like for it to be a little smaller and therefore less conspicuous than this one. I would like for it to be a standard enough model that it could be repaired. It doesn’t matter if there aren’t so many jewels – seven would do. I would like for it to have removable pins so a new strap could be put on. Of course it should have a luminous dial and a sweep second hand is nice but not at all necessary.
You can mention this to Leo if you want to if you want to but I expect it would be better to do it after he has fixed it. But use your own judgement. I don’t care whether it was traded with him or anyone else. But I think it shouldn’t go for any less than $35. If the right person was known it might even be possible to sell it directly. Write and tell me your ideas on this situation.
Well I hope everything is alright with you. Lots of love, Donald